Tag Archives | missing person

Monday, November 16, 2009 would have been my best friend, Lilly Aramburo’s 26 birthday. Lily has been missing since June 2, 2007. Her plight has been featured on Nancy Grace and Americas Most Wanted.

Lily disappeared from the apartment of her heroin addicted boyfriend in the Dadeland area. Since then, her mother Lucely and I have launched an exhaustive search for her only to become disillusioned and extremely frustrated with the lack of effort of the Miami Dade Police Department.

Police failed to locate two witnesses that were present the night she disappeared. We’ve been working with private investigator Joe Carrillo and his team for over a year locating the two witnesses within days. A convicted killer has been identified by the investigators as a person of interest in her disappearance. After four meetings with the missing persons detectives, a convicted killer who served time for murder has yet to be interviewed even though identified and located by the private investigator. Why? Police refuse to answer the why.

Lily’s mother and I desperately need to bring attention to her disappearance and want answers from the Miami Dade Police Department. We’re both commencing a hunger strike Monday at 9:00 AM in front of the Miami Dade Government Center until we get answers.

Location: Government Center
111 NW 1 Street
Miami, Fl.

We’d like to thank all of you for supporting us in our fight to find Lily and for keeping Lily in your hearts and minds. PLEASE do not stop passing on this blog to all you know! You can also help support the search for Lily by donating to Lily’s reward fund or by purchasing a T-Shirt.

Anyone with information pertaining to the disappearance of Lily Aramburo is urged to contact Private Investigator Joe Carrillo at 305-926-3110 or call Miami Dade Police at 305-418-7200.

A bank account has been set up for the family in the name of Somer Thompson. Anyone interested in assisting the family with expenses related to Somer’s death can do so at any area Vystar Credit Union. The account number is 0702794000.

An Amber Alert was issued today for a missing 7 year old Florida girl, Somer Thompson. (pictured below)

Second grader Somer Renee Thompson did not return from her Clay County school on Monday afternoon. She lives in the Grove Park neighborhood and was seen a few block from her home at about 2:45 p.m., according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.

In a news release issued about the girl’s disappearance, the sheriff’s office said Somer’s mother was walking through her neighborhood looking for Somer when she flagged down a passing deputy and reported the 7-year-old child was missing. Somer had reportedly been walking home with her sister and friends but ran ahead of them heading toward home.

The sheriff’s office issued this description of Somer:

* 7 years old

* White female

* 3 feet, 5 inches tall

* 65 pounds

* Brown hair in pony tail

* Last seen wearing a cranberry colored jumpsuit with pink striped sleeves

Anyone with information is asked to call the Clay County Sheriff’s Office as (904)264-6512. UPDATE: The phone number of Clay County Sheriff’s Office has been updated to 1-877-227-6911

Authorities are searching for 24-year-old Mitrice Richardson, who disappeared shortly after being released by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. TODAY’s Matt Lauer talks to Mitrice’s parents and the family’s attorney about the investigation.

In the early hours of June 2, 2007, Lilly Aramburo left her boyfriend’s apartment, never to be seen again. As her family and friends have told us, she would never leave her baby son behind on her own free will.

Now, they have turned to America’s Most Wanted for help.

Lilly is described as friendly and always willing to listen and help a friend in need. A blog has been started, called Justice in Miami, to raise awareness about her case.

At 22, she was not without problems. She struggled with drugs, and may have found herself in a situation where people she knew did her harm.

Private Eye Working To Find Lilly

Lilly’s friends are desperate for answers in her disappearance.

The quiet residential street in Miami where she lived turned different at night, and people are afraid to talk about what they see and what they know.

Law enforcement sources say they know the last place she was seen alive, a private home on the street.

Those who love her have great concerns about her not being alive when she left that house.

A South Florida private investigator, Joe Carrillo, has received some great tips that have been passed on to Miami law enforcement.

Those that know Lilly think some people might be afraid to come forward. Lilly’s loved ones want to know what may have been done to her.

Karen, a homemaker and mother of two from Indiana, has long had trouble falling asleep. About five years ago, to help herself wind down, she started going through missing persons sites on the Web, trying to match a person who had vanished with a John or Jane Doe whose remains had been found but whose name still remained a mystery.

When she started her informal cure for insomnia, Karen had to switch back and forth between an array of various sites – those that had information on missing persons, and those that had information on unidentified remains.

As of this year, Karen didn’t have to switch back and forth anymore. The National Forensic Science Technology Center, which is located in Largo, launched the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs. It contains two databases – one for unidentified remains and one for missing persons – and search engines the general public can use to find a match.

Last month, Karen got a hit on the system, according to officials with the technology center.

In the unidentified remains database, she spotted a sketch of a facial reconstruction performed after a woman’s skeletal remains turned up some five years ago, outside Albuquerque, N.M.

Then she started going through the missing persons database and matched the sketch with the photograph of Sonia Lente, a 44-year-old Native American, who was last seen in the company of a man two years earlier, leaving a bar within city limits.

NamUs, which costs a little more than $4 million and is funded by the National Institute of Justice, solves a few problems, said Kevin Lothridge, chief executive officer for the technology center.

Perhaps most importantly, it centralizes into a single national database information that typically has been scattered among different states and jurisdictions. That allowed a cyber sleuth like Karen to make a match in a missing persons case on the other side of the country.

It is also what Lothridge calls “public addressable,” which means members of the public can access the database and conduct searches, much in the same way they do on Google or Craigslist. Historically, only law enforcement agencies had access to crime-solving databases, and with some databases that is still the case, such as those containing fingerprints and DNA.

Anyone who wants to create a profile of a loved one on NamUs can do so, and the information entered can be anything that identifies someone – a family photograph, a picture of a tattoo, the serial number on a breast implant, dental records, prosthetic devices, jewelry or clothing. The better the information, the stronger the strength of the missing person’s profile, he said.

For example, Jennifer Kesse – who was abducted in Orlando in 2006 and hasn’t been seen since — has an exceptionally strong missing person’s profile, with a score of 5, the highest attainable.

On it her father has noted her eye color can change from green to blue, depending on the kind of contact lenses she is wearing, and that she has a tattoo of a four-leaf clover on her left hip at the panty line. Her profile also has her dental records and notes her DNA is available.

A missing person’s profile is not automatically posted; rather, it is flagged. Then one of the program’s seven regional administrators the country can check with the law enforcement agency handling the missing person’s case to make sure the profile is legitimate, Lothridge said. Once that step is taken, the profile goes online.

Once it is online, a family member – or a cyber sleuth like Karen – can start conducting searches on the site. If, for instance, a mother knows her daughter had a tattoo of a clover leaf on the small of her back, she can conduct a query to see if anyone has turned up who had the same type of tattoo.

“No one wants to find them more than a family member,” said Billy Young, the NamUs coordinator.

If the family member or cyber sleuth thinks he or she has a match, she can then call the regional administrator or the appropriate law enforcement agency and suggest they take the next step – take a look at fingerprints or DNA, if they are available, to see if the presumed match can be corroborated, Lothridge said.

NamUs has odontologists throughout the country to compare dental records. If the DNA of a loved one isn’t immediately available, NamUs will work to get it, perhaps off the missing person’s toothbrush, through an arrangement with the University of North Texas. The university sends kits to the law enforcement agency in charge of the missing person’s case, and an investigator or technician tries to get a DNA sample for the database.

Karen got her match through hardcore sleuthing, but this month NamUs started a program that automatically cross-references information from the missing persons database with information in the unidentified remains database.

The hope is that, as time goes on, more and more cases involving missing persons and unidentified remains will be entered into NamUs. In the United States, there are an estimated 100,000 active missing cases, and more than 40,000 cases involving unidentified remains, according to the technology center.

By comparison, there were only 4,951 unidentified persons entered into NamUs as of May, 2009, and only 1,497 missing persons.

The Disappearance of South Florida mother, Lucely “Lily” Aramburo has left her family and friends devastated. Although it’s been almost 2 years, since she’s been gone, she is not forgotten. Lilly was a very good friend. I miss her dearly.

Lilly Aramburo was 23 when she disappeared in June 2007. She was last seen leaving her boyfriend’s condo, located in the Kendall area of Miami, Florida. Lilly’s boyfriend called her family the next evening at 2am after reporting her missing to Miami Dade Police. There are a lot of questions and very few answers. Needless to say, Lilly’s case remains unsolved.

A candlelight vigil and silent march is being planned for the 2nd year anniversary of Lilly’s disappearance. It will take place at the end of May in Coconut Grove, Florida. I will keep you updated as more info becomes available.

If you live in the South Florida area, consider showing your support by attending the vigil and silent march. If you use Facebook, please RSVP here.

“Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.” -Lamartine

We depend on social networking sites to assist in raising awareness for Lilly Aramburo and missing people. If you have a loved one that’s missing, or if you’d like to help the cause, please join this Missing Persons group on Flickr. The group is focused on missing persons in the United States. Every member is encouraged to upload pictures of missing loved ones (as long as they disappeared within the US). This is a good idea for several aspects. Many people use Flickr and it’s a very effective way of raising awareness for the missing.

Please join us in the Missing Persons Friendfeed Room. Members post links to pictures, articles, anything that has to do with missing people (Amber Alerts, abductions, kidnapping, runaways, etc). If you’re a social media lover, be sure to join us on various sites across the web like Care2.com and Mixx.com. Please add Missing Lilly Aramburo as a friend on myspace and join her cause on Facebook. These are just a few things you can do to help.

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of Lilly (above). It’s how I remember my friend. Smiling, laughing, enjoying LIFE. Since Lilly’s disappearance, on June 1, 2007, life has not been the same. Lily’s mother lives in constant agony, waiting for news about her daughter. It’s not easy having to raise her grandson under such difficult circumstances . With each day, Lilly’s son (now 2 years old) slowly loses precious memories of his mother. He was only 9 months old, last time he was held in her warm and loving embrace. With every new picture, sadness tends to overcome me. And all I’m left with are questions. After all this time, I believe her little boy and family, deserve answers. She absolutely did NOT willingly walk away from her son and her life. She’d never allow so much time to pass without a phone call or checking in on her son. Someone took her from us. And many of us will not rest until she is brought back home and justice is served for Lilly Aramburo.

You can help by making a quick phone call to the US Attorney’s Office at 305-530-7679. It appears the US Attorneys office are the only ones who can properly investigate this case. Also, please continue sending emails to Governor Charlie Crist and media. It makes no sense that after all this time, not ONE article has been written about Lilly’s case in local newspapers like The Miami Herald or her picture displayed by local news channels. It’s not due to lack of effort, I testify to that.

Someone out there knows what happened to Lilly. I urge you to contact the detective or call the tip line at 305-471-TIPS. You can remain anonymous if need be. Just pick up the phone and make the phone call, please! No matter how small a detail, no matter how silly you think it may be, your information could help solve this mystery. It’s been hell for Lilly’s family and friends. Please help bring Lilly back home. Immediately contact MDPD at 305-418-7245 or call the tip line at 305-471-TIPS, if you know anything at all about Lilly Aramburo’s disappearance.

Here’s a direct statement to her perpetrator, YOUR CONSCIOUS MUST BE KILLING YOU!

If you live in or around Allegan County, please keep your eyes open for this 77 year old missing man, Marshall Kenyon. Anyone with information about Marshall Kenyon’s whereabouts is asked to contact Allegan County Central Dispatch at 269-673-3899.

ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – The Allegan County Sheriff’s Office is asking for help in locating a missing person.

Marshall Boyd Kenyon is a 77-year-old male who suffers from mild dementia/Alzheimers and is in generally poor health. Marshall was last seen on Monday, December 1st around 2:15 pm, leaving his home in Plainwell, Michigan.

Marshall was headed out to get mail and cigars in the Plainwell area. Marshall was driving a gray and tan 2003 Buick Century with a Michigan plate ‘BGF 1822.’ Marshall was last seen wearing a red and black Carhart jacket, stocking cap, jeans and boots. Marshall also wears glasses.

Anyone with information about Marshall Kenyon’s whereabouts is asked to contact Allegan County Central Dispatch at 269-673-3899.

Thankfully, a few media outlets picked up Heather’s story. The Miami Herald wrote a good article about it on today’s paper. The writer, David Ovalle, included very helpful information about the Kid Finders Network. As he writes:

“The billboard is being provided to North Miami Beach police by the Kid Finders Ntework, a West Palm Beach-based volunteer organization run by Sherri and Dennis Milstead. Kid Finders, which relies on donations, provides mobile billboards aimed at finding missing young people. The price of Riggio’s mobile billboard — the printing of the banner and trailer upkeep — is about $3,000, footed so far by the Milsteads. ”We work off donations and we’re still trying to get sponsors,” Sherri Milstead said.“We’re hanging by a shoestring.”

Here’s another article and video about Heather on CBS4. And another one on WSVN including video, as well. You can find more information about Heather Riggio’s case by doing a Google search. There’s over 26,000 pages of search results.

This from Heather’s sister’s Myspace page http://www.myspace.com/heathersmissing “We want as many people as possible to see her picture and know her story…But we need help…we need people to donate gas money and driving time to keep the billboard running…PLEASE contact Sherry @ 561-333-2779 if you can do anything..anything at all helps..thanks a lot, Lisa”. As you can see that Heather’s family is torn up and suffering dearly for the return of their precious “Kitty”. See more picture of Heather here. If you have any information, anything at all, please contact North Miami Beach Police at 305-949-5500.

This morning I attended a Press Conference held by the North Miami Beach Police and Kid Finders Network for missing person, Heather “Kitty” Riggio. I was invited by Sherri Milstead, the Executive Director of Kid Finders Network. She learned about Lilly’s case and contacted me earlier in the week.

Kid Finders Network is a nonprofit organization which provides mobile billboards to families, organizations and Law Agencies in search of Missing Children and Missing Persons. They have a mobile billboard (pictured above) with Heather’s information and picture on it. It will stay at the police station in North Miami Beach until Monday. After that it will go to the area where Heather was last seen at in Homestead. It will cruise the area, increasing the odds of someone calling with an important tip. The drivers are trained in taking tips, too. You can see my entire set of pictures of the press conference and the mobile billboard by clicking the link under the picture.

Lilly’s mom and I could not contain our tears as we watched the press conference taking place. You can’t help but feel overwhelmed with compassion for families experiencing the same suffering. It was heartbreaking. But at the same time, I saw the dedication and all the effort put forth by the detectives from North Miami Beach Police Department. What a blessing for Heather’s family. I’ve been following her case and from the start, these detectives have done such a great job. I admire and commend them for their commitment and efforts to find Heather. They were able to get her story featured on America’s Most Wanted.

Here is the official press release from the North Miami Beach Police Department. They have it posted on their website:

Narrative: Kid Finders Network will be assisting us with a missing person case where a young female, Heather Riggio, went missing on May 6, 2007 and the public’s help is paramount to helping us find her or find out what happened to her as foul play may be involved. Kid Finders Network is providing an innovative way to assist law enforcement with the recovery of missing persons by providing a mobile billboard that will feature vital information such as photographs of the victim, the areas she frequented, etc. which will be deployed in the area Heather was last seen.

Kid Finders will be at the North Miami Beach Police Department on Friday, July 11th at 11:00 AM with the billboard provided for this case. Representatives from Kid Finders Network as well as NMB Chief Rafael P. Hernandez, Jr. and Lead Case Detective Rich Rand will be present to speak about the case and unveil the highly effective and innovative billboard that will profile this case.

Sunday, November 16th would have been Lilly Aramburo’s 25th birthday. More than 16 months have passed since her family and friends last saw Lilly’s sweet smile or listened to her kind words. Her absence is felt every day by many who knew and loved her.

Justice In Miami is inviting everyone to join Lilly’s friends and family this Sunday for a Birthday Vigil in Lilly’s honor in Miami Beach. The gathering will take place on 80th Street & Collins Ave to celebrate Lilly’s life. Bring a candle and a prayer, together we can start the healing process.

Sadly, life hasn’t been the same since June 2, 2007. It won’t ever be back to normal until the truth about what happened comes to light and the persons who did this are brought to justice.

WHAT: BIRTHDAY VIGIL FOR LILLY ARAMBURO
WHEN: SUNDAY, November 16th, 2008
WHERE: 80th Street and Collins Ave in Miami Beach, FL
By the water…
TIME: TBA
If you’re interested in attending, please let me know and I’ll make sure to keep you updated. If you cannot make it, (wherever you are) please light a candle and dedicate a prayer for Lilly.

The Tucson Police Department has announced that the Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation is offering a $5,000 reward for any information leading to the safe return of Ms. Elnora Charles. Ms. Charles is 63 years old, stands 5’1” tall, and weighs 170 pounds. She was last seen wearing a black and red flower dress and prescription eyeglasses.

Ms. Charles was last seen by a family member driving northbound on 1 st Avenue at Fort Lowell Road at around 7 p.m. on November 15, 2007. Her car was found abandoned in the Catalina Mountains two days later.

My friend, Lilly Aramburo, vanished 6/1/07 from her fiance’s condo in Miami, FL. Recently, an article about Lilly was published on the cover of the Miami New Times. Now, just a few short weeks later, Nancy Grace featured her on her show as a Case Alert.

Help find this young mother. Viriadiana has been missing since October from North Charleston, South Carolina. Please call the Comen Detective Agency at 571-2667, if you have any information regarding the disappearance of Viriadiana Maldonado.

A $1,000 reward is being offered if she is found by midnight on January 10th.

The family of a missing woman hopes a $1,000 dollar reward can help bring her back. Viridiana Maldonado’s, 21, has been missing since October.

She was last seen at her North Charleston apartment.

Police said at a news conference Thursday morning they don’t think she left home on her own free will. They’re hoping someone will know where she is.

Maldonado’s sister says she’s been getting text messages from her sister that don’t sound right. A translator for the sister of Maldonado says, “The way she sent those text messages is not her … She never asked for her children, you know, like text messaging: ‘How are the kids doing?’ or ‘Take care of them.’ Because if she left, she would know the kids had to stay with somebody. I don’t think the mother would just leave the kids not knowing what’s going to happen to them.”

If you know where to find Viridiana Maldonado, call the Comen Detective Agency at 571-2667.

A $1,000 reward is being offered if she is found by midnight on January 10th.